Mexico Deputy Health Minister Says AstraZeneca Vaccines Sent From Baltimore Plant Is Safe

Millions of doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine manufactured at a U.S. plant that had a contamination issue then shipped to Mexico are safe and are approved by two regulators, Mexico’s deputy health minister said on Friday.

The doses were sent to Mexico as a part of an agreement with the administration of President Joe Biden for two .7 million shots of AstraZeneca’s vaccine to assist supplement Mexico’s vaccination campaign amid global delays and shortages.

“They were produced within the Baltimore plant,” Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez Gatell wrote on Twitter. “The product is safe and of quality, it had been evaluated by the FDA and (health regulator) COFEPRIS.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) halted production at the U.S. plant in Baltimore which produced the vaccines while it investigated a mistake that led to many doses being ruined last month.

Johnson & Johnson was put responsible of producing at the plant in early April by the U.S. government after it disclosed the error during which ingredients from AstraZeneca’s shot, also produced at the plant at that point , contaminated a batch of the J&J vaccine.

The ny Times earlier reported that many vaccines made at the plant were sent to both Mexico and Canada.

Neither Mexico’s foreign ministry nor an area representative of AstraZeneca immediately skilled an invitation for comment.